Drakensang - First Impressions @ RPS

Yes, itís a fantasy role-playing game. Which everyone knows, means push-up bras. Drakensang is comfortable with its existence as a FRPG. It never tries to be anything else.
But no, itís not going to be one of those slightly-strained ďOh, God, this is so immature/sexist/whateverĒ sort of pieces of eye-rolling. Itís just making clear everyone understands that this isnít a progressive smart forward-looking RPG. This is an RPG which embraces the conventions of the genre with every part of its body and soul. Its read the Dragonlance books. It cried when Flint died. It cares deeply about that Spoiler. In the five hours Iíve played, Iíve faced death itself in the form of giant rats. Repeatedly. Iíve taken a break from pursuing escaping assassins through a maze to break open every barrel I pass to collect individual pints of beer and even skin some rats. Iíve been in four taverns.
Is this a problem for you? Drakensang totally isnít for you.
Me? Iím a big olí geek. I enjoyed it a lot.

Just want to say I totally agree with that short summary. I haven't gotten very far in the game but I'm having a lot more fun than I anticipated. It just feels so nice and classic… ah, the good old days… before games started feeling like they had to go for "gritty and realistic" by removing 70% of the color and covering everything in a coating of rust, grime, and randomly splattered blood…

Originally Posted by Saber-Scorpion
before games started feeling like they had to go for "gritty and realistic" by removing 70% of the color

Yes, you can perhaps imagine how shocked I was as I saw exactly this with the second Star Wars Battlefront game ! Wasted money, I thought. And still think.
I think they even tried to remove 80-90 % of all colours.

— ď Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius Ė and a lot of courage Ė to move in the opposite direction.ď (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

And I also think that the first one is kind of a fashion in gaming nowadays - perhaps even in whole art.

— ď Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius Ė and a lot of courage Ė to move in the opposite direction.ď (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Tried the demo. Could not find a way to control vertical camera movement. The control scheme has multiple personality disorder; it can't decide whether its an RTS (or Baldur's Gate scheme) or FPS and does neither well. Till I can find a way to control vertical camera movement, I deem the game unplayable.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Must be hard to find the right mouse button.

Yes there's something wrong about it, how people are supposed to find that? Read the manual? Nobody does anyway. What's missing is in the controls setup something that shows possibilities by allowing custom setup for any control.

Another point would have been to include a panel with a summary of the commands.

About the scroll lock mode, beside to be a toggle mode not requiring a constant pressing, it should also hide the cursor, it's so weird to have it in this mode. Some good reason to have it in controls panel setup.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Must be hard to find the right mouse button.

Don't be snippy. This is a demo without a manual.

The usual assumptions are camera control by mouselook (FPS) or moving the cursor to the edge of the screen (RTS). I've only encountered "hold RMB to change camera" once in Pirates of the Caribbean and been nonplussed by it. Mouselook is a generally accepted standard and the developers should have taken that into account.

Originally Posted by Bedwyr
Don't be snippy. This is a demo without a manual.

Don't be yourself.

Everyone should at leasy try to do something with the right mouse button !

Nowadays almost every game implements something for the right mouse button !

Also, on a windows-based operating system, one should expect right-mouse-button behaviour, too …

I thought that MS had long, long ago tried to make us learn: Right mouse button is for any context menu … No surprise for me that there are some more uses for it …

Originally Posted by Yeesh
Contrast to Diablo III, where fans have been bitterly resentful of a brighter, more colorful look.

I assume the same kind of players would cry out if SWBFIII got a more colourful look, too.

It's like getting people accustomed to something and then cater them …

— ď Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius Ė and a lot of courage Ė to move in the opposite direction.ď (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I Generally enjoyed the game - except the last mountain slugfest. But the camera was really poor - it would get stuck in cramped quarters, and make certain tactical views impossible. It reminded me of the NWN camera…how I hated that! Oddly enough other games never struggle with over the shoulder views, making things suitably translucent, and allowing the camera to move where it will. I hope they address this in the next installment.

Finally decided, meh. Mouse button silliness aside (In my defense I'd clicked it a few times, didn't see anything happen, and went on), it's perfunctory. Lots of good elements are there, but nothing that really draws them together and makes them sing. Character animations are over-the-top. I turned down the volume on voice acting. Visual quality is good. World interactivity is limited. It's always 4pm, apparently. The RPG system is a solid one (never played Dark Eye).

Originally Posted by Bedwyr
Don't be snippy. This is a demo without a manual.

The usual assumptions are camera control by mouselook (FPS) or moving the cursor to the edge of the screen (RTS). I've only encountered "hold RMB to change camera" once in Pirates of the Caribbean and been nonplussed by it. Mouselook is a generally accepted standard and the developers should have taken that into account.

Sorry, I thought I remembered that the RMB was either mentioned in the first seconds in the game world or listed in the options. Seems I didn't remember it correctly.

And now calm down, everybody. It's not important enough to start a brawl over it.